New study exposes link between pesticides and childhood brain tumours

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

A new study from the Telethon Institute for Child Health
Research has revealed a potential link between professional
pesticide treatments in the home and a higher risk of children
developing brain tumours.

Published this week in the international journal Cancer Causes
& Control, the study found that exposure by parents to
professional pesticide treatments prior to conception could
increase the chances of a child developing a brain tumour.

The research, led by Professor Elizabeth Milne, analysed data from
303 case families and 941 control families who participated in the
Australian Study of Childhood Brain Tumours (Aus-CBT) -- a
nationwide case-control study designed to investigate environmental
and genetic risk factors for CBT.

The study examined professional pesticide exposure in the year
before pregnancy, during pregnancy and after the child is born,
revealing a link between the timing of the exposure and the type of
pesticides involved.

"Our results indicated that parents' exposure to professional pest
control treatments in the home up to a year prior to falling
pregnant is associated with an increased risk of their child
developing a brain tumour," said Professor Milne.

"Of the pesticide treatments we looked at, it appeared that
professional termite treatments posed a greater risk than other
general insecticide treatments," she said. "The increased
risk associated with termite treatments may be as high as two-fold,
while the increased risk with other pesticides may be about
30%."

The researchers say these findings, supported by those of other
similar studies, suggest that it would be advisable for parents to
avoid exposure to professional pest control treatments in the
period leading up to conception.

Professor Milne cautioned that the results did not mean that
pesticide exposure had caused brain tumours in children in the
study.

"There are likely to be many causes of childhood brain tumours.
What we are looking at here is factors that may increase risk and
these findings cannot be extrapolated to an individual level," she
said.